With miles of empty silver beaches, several of the best golf links in Europe and house prices a third of those in Dublin - Donegal has, understandably, become a favourite for -second-home owners. And after a sustained period of depressed prices in the region, there are now signs that the property market is beginning to bounce back.

Donegal has the longest coastline of any county in the Irish Republic and can offer property investors peninsulas, bays and loughs stretching along its Atlantic shore. Near Portsalon, on the Malin Peninsula, there is a mile-long beach that has been ranked by one national newspaper as the second best in the world - beaten only by the Seychelles - and some of the best surfing in Europe can be found at the seaside town of Bundoran and at Pollan Bay at Ballyliffin, on the Inishowen Peninsula.